Propositions
by MairiNathaira
Summary: James Sirius Potter plans out his future after Hogwarts with a certain person in mind. SLASH WARNING. JP2/SM.


**Title**: Propositions

**Author**: Mairi Nathaira

**Rating**: PG-13

**Category**: First Time, Established Relationship, Romance, Humour

**Notes**: DH Spoilers!!! Just some random plot bunny as these new post-DH communities pop up. Thanks to Mosh for the beta! And thanks to Jenken for some of her comments and advices.

**Summary**: James Potter (third generation) plans out his future after Hogwarts with a certain person in mind.

**Pairing**: JP2/SM

**Warnings**: Slash

**Dedications**: None

**Disclaimer**: Harry Potter belongs to Warner Brothers and the wonderful JK Rowling. I do not own them, despite the fact I wish I could own SS, RL, and SB. The only thing that belongs to me is the story itself.

**Feedback**: All comments and criticisms are welcomed there. If it's flame then don't bother for I will put them in my trashcan or blog about it and laugh at you.

* * *

James Potter sighs in extreme relief that his NEWTs are finally over with. Indeed, those tests live up to their namesake by being tremendously nasty and exhausting. He swears that the officials at the Ministry of Magic are sadistic to the core. He bets that these officials enjoy creating these tests simply to discourage and torture the new rising generations of students, killing their optimism to face the world in a positive light. With all the stress the students suffer at their mercy, James thinks it's amazing there aren't more evil warlords trying to conquer the wizarding world.

Finally reaching the end of his goals, James has decided to relax by sitting outside, underneath his favourite tree, enjoying the warm early summer breezes brushing by gently against his face. To feel even more complete with the newfound freedom, his lover has joined him, and is at the moment lying on the ground with his head on James' lap. Leaning against the trunk, James runs his hands through Scorpius Malfoy's pale blond locks, massaging the hidden scalp and taking pleasure in the warmth it provides for his fingers.

"Mmm. That feels good, James." Scorpius closes his eyes.

Smiling, he reaches down to undo the gold and scarlet tie on his lover. As he tugs on it, he also unbuttons the top button and reveals the fair skin. He bares the area more as he unbuttons the next one and strokes the smooth skin, studying it and comparing it to his own darker and slightly freckled flesh. Scorpius emits a soft moan, and his breath hitches at the loving touch. His eyes flutter open, and his usual neutral expression is replaced with a content and peaceful one that he only shows in front of James; on the other hand, the seventh-year continues his movement of sliding his fingers over the exposed skin in an affectionate manner as he loses himself in his thoughts.

* * *

Back in his second year, he remembered the shock of everyone in the Great Hall when the Sorting Hat had announced the new Malfoy heir to be in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. James had felt the same jolt of surprise along with an alarming abundance of resentment to the child only a year younger than him. The bombshell dropped even harder when his brother, Albus "Al" Severus, had been initiated as a Slytherin. Talk about a mind-blowing revelation to his Gryffindor-oriented ego, when a Potter went into the house of the snakes while a Malfoy came into the house of the lion.

James recalled his thoughts on the sorting hat then: _the old hat definitely has turned senile in its decision-making and it deserve to have a smarter successor, meaning that the first years shall be re-sorted_. Of course and unfortunately for James, none of the professors, not even Neville Longbottom, a close family friend whom he and his siblings call 'Uncle Nev,' agreed with him on what he thought as a very logical proposition.

The next couple of weeks had shown James living through a haze, a big shield of denial preventing him from accepting the reality in front of his own nose. But then, out of nowhere, through his misfortunes, he saw a group of first years hanging out together outside. That was when he discovered his brother and that Malfoy prat becoming friends. That visual image snapped James out of his haze. Yelling and screaming at his brother for even looking at that slimy cheating scum who had been mis-sorted into the wrong house, James even let his anger out on Scorpius, telling him to stay the hell away from his misguided brother. At that moment, Uncle Nev -- also known as Professor Longbottom of Hogwarts, Herbology Professor -- appeared, docking Gryffindor fifteen points for immature display of personal anger that hurt other people and giving James a detention in which James had to clean every single greenhouse -- seven in total and each were huge -- without the usage of _any_ magic.

Sulking and infuriated at how everything was spiralling out of his control, James cursed his brother, cursed Malfoy, and even cursed Uncle Nev for stealing Filch's sick idea of making his students act like a bunch of squibs! However, he especially cursed that damned, bloody, stinking, good-for-nothing-useless hat for starting off his second year in the most miserable way ever.

With some help from Uncle George, James went on to spend the rest of his second year tormenting the two anomalies at Hogwarts with all sorts of tricks, ranging from giving them candies that changed their outfits into pink tutus, to casting spells that ripped open Malfoy's bag and made him late for classes, and even throwing barf-bombs -- bombs that, well, quite literally, _spewed_ barf on the poor victims -- on a group of Slytherins his brother had befriended whom the two Hogwarts glitches hung out with.

Instead of being tell-tales, the two close friends had decided to be the mature ones in this whole situation by ignoring and not acknowledging James; needless to say, that enraged the pre-teen even more. It even became more frustrating when Uncle George, though amused by his nephew's pranks, had been told by Ginny (who somehow discovered her first-born son torturing her other son and her son's best friend) to stop helping her son from doing his best to get expelled like an idiot, or she would not only find a way to shut down the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, but she would painfully cut off his remaining ear and castrate him if she needed to.

Over the summer between James' second and third year, he made the choice to volunteer his time at Uncle George's shop in Diagon Alley. From there, while he did his mundane tasks as a cleaner and a tester, he learned to be creative and create his own pranks and doo-dahs to continue his vengeance on Al and Malfoy -- especially with Malfoy. So during his third year, instead of venturing out to Hogsmeade -- except for the first time -- on the weekends, he chose to be in a random empty classroom to do Potions and Charms experiments for his new line of pranks that even surpassed the Weasley Twins during their third year.

In his fourth year, his sister finally came to Hogwarts and she was sorted into Gryffindor. He was glad that she didn't get sorted into Slytherin! One Potter as Slytherin was bad enough! Still not over the whole fact that Malfoy had taken his brother's rightful spot, James continued to annoy his younger housemate, but the time between the pranks grew longer as he discovered other stuff to keep himself busy. Professor Slughorn and Professor Flitwick, both knowing of James' strength in those two subjects, allowed him an unrestricted access to the Restricted Section of the library. This opened up the world for James as he studied and absorbed all the new topics to put into his projects.

Then, in the middle of his fourth year, James heard that Al had disappeared into the forest and no one had seen him in the last seven hours or so. Frightened and worried for his brother, James snuck out of the castle and headed into the forest under his father's invisibility cloak. It was at the entrance he saw Malfoy sneaking into the dangerous area as well. Despite his better judgement, he allowed Malfoy under the cloak. Perhaps the fact that Malfoy showing up to go rescue his best friend finally proved to James that the lad did indeed care for his brother. Not only that, but to sneak out to go into the forest as a third year showed more courage than anyone James knew.

The two of them combined their skills and worked as a team to find Al, who had fallen into an old hidden ditch that was about seven feet deep. Falling into the hole had broken his leg, and he had stumbled over something before crashing in the hollow ground, causing him to drop his wand on the ground above. Wandless and with his leg in pain, Al was pretty much stuck in there until James and Malfoy came. Why Al was in the forest in the first place was a secret between the three. The real reason was that he wanted to see if he could find that legendary Resurrection Stone. The reason they told other people was that he wanted to see Firenze and ask some question and thus got into trouble with the ditch as a punishment for his careless and reckless behaviour.

This whole experienced taught James that his brother, despite being a Slytherin, could be reckless and foolhardy like a typical Gryffindor. He also discovered that someone like Scorpius Malfoy could be a decent person, despite his family background, and he grudgingly began to respect Malfoy -- no, _Scorpius_ -- by laying off the pranks and only continuing his project for personal enjoyment and knowledge than rather as a mean to torment other people in a cruel way.

In his fifth year, he was too busy studying and preparing for the OWLs to even think about Al and Scorpius. In fact, he tried to stay away from them, not because he hated them, but because he was jealous that the two were in their fourth year, still carefree and innocent, they were not stressing and practically dying of self-angst and mutilation at the horrendous OWLs that James was to face.

Unfortunately, fate remained cruel for James. Professor Slughorn, after manipulatively praising his skills in Potions, saying that he was probably the first Gryffindor in a century to have this kind of _superb_ skills, begged and pleaded him to help tutor one of his weakest students. After he agreed to it, his ego inflating quite a bit, he decided then that Lady Luck did not love him at all. In fact, she must have absolutely hated him because of all the students in the whole damn school, it had to be Scorpius Malfoy.

Somehow James wondered if Uncle Ron's notion of Draco Malfoy being absolute crap in Potions was actually true and that Scorpius' father only got the good grades because of Lucius Malfoy bribing Severus Snape with certain payments. With that logic, then Draco's poor Potions skill was transferred over to Scorpius, making him suffer in a more awful way since Professor Slughorn would never accept a bribe from an ex-Death Eater.

Their first couple of sessions were quite tense and uncomfortable. However, once they got over the initial idea of working together, they decided that the sooner Scorpius improved on his Potions skills, the sooner they could stop the sessions. But they ended up working well with each other. The two strangely complimented each other with their strengths and weaknesses in the school subject. With James being the best at Potions and Charms, and Scorpius being the best in DADA and Arithmancy, Scorpius would help James out with Arithmancy while he received help with Potions. Soon, both of their weakest classes became less of a hassle for them. When the crunch time came for the OWLs, the tutoring lessons stopped.

By the time his sixth year came, James was glad for a year of reprieve before the NEWTs hell started. He did admit that his OWLs results were fairly decent, with him receiving four Os in Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, and Ancient Runes, and the rest were all Es except for a dismal T for Divination. Obviously Professor Trelawney still did not forgive his father for not taking her classes seriously, and with her self-esteem truly butchered, she taught them everything wrongly. James knew he was not going to be taking the NEWT level one for that class!

The tutoring session that started the year before resumed again for him and Scorpius. He wasn't sure why they started again, when both of them, especially Scorpius, improved a lot, but without any questions James just went along with it. It was during one of these sessions that James casually and nonchalantly told Scorpius about some of his projects he'd been creating to sell in Uncle George's shop one day. It was ironic how of all people to tell first about his plans, he told Scorpius, the lad he hated with passion just a few years earlier. And it was even more peculiar how the person who was in the brunt of most of these earlier pranks was the person he just told.

They were actually getting along quite well. It was almost like the two of them were going to be the new Marauders of Hogwarts. Well that was what James thought before that inevitable day changed everything.

It was a typical day in the classroom they did their sessions, but then they got into an argument over something to do with House Elves and Muggles. James really could not remember what started their argument or even what they were disagreeing about! All he knew was that they were both heatedly butting each other's proverbial and metaphorical horns with each other in the bull fighting arena, and then James saw the red flag flash in front of him. Next thing he knew, he had shoved the younger boy against a wall, trapped and pinned Scorpius beneath his body, and planted a very hot, raw, and _needy_ kiss, with his tongue grazing Scorpius' teeth. With all the tensions from their argument and with their whacked out, imbalance hormone levels, James went at it with ferocity and gusto The scariest part with all this was that Scorpius was snogging him back and not resisting at all. Not even one bit. At least that was the conclusion he came to when he felt Scorpius grinding their hardness together after several minutes of passionate kissing, which felt fabulously brilliant. Never mind that he never considered himself gay, but James liked it, and he knew he wanted more.

From several severe snogging sessions to the two of them humping each other like two jack rabbits during a year long mating season, somewhere along the line, their relationship transformed from a purely physical one -- the ones where their second heads think with their urgent needs -- to a more emotionally attached one. Instead of acting like the aforementioned jack rabbits, their acts became an activity where one would associate with romance and love. Yes, James Potter was in love with a Malfoy. Had anyone told him that back in his second year, he surely would have committed murder, and the Ministry would have somehow splinched him into two parts, where a part would be kept at Azkaban with the other at Nurmengard.

They soon agreed to tell their parents, so during the Christmas holiday of 2021, James led his parents, Al, and Lily to the neutral area of the Three Broomsticks where Scorpius bought his parents to have dinner. Needless to say, even after casting three layers of _Silencius_, the spells were not powerful enough to hide Harry's and Draco's sputterings and outrages of anger. While the two fathers were busy acting angry, the two wives quickly told their sons that they loved them and that they would support their choices before turning to their husbands to knock some sense into the two stubborn rivals.

Al and Lily, suspecting the two in a relationship, just congratulated them and wished for their happiness. Al even went as far as to whisper into James' ear that James owed him _everything_ since if it wasn't for Al, James would have never found his true love. Not wanting to admit that his brother was right, he also wanted to wipe that cocky smirk off his face, so he stealthily put some dissolving pills into Al's pumpkin juice. After drinking that, Al's voice, for the rest of the Christmas holiday, sounded as if a cat was stuck in a bagpipe with its yowling volume at the maximum level.

The rest of James' sixth year went by quickly afterwards, soon nearing the end of another school year. For the summer, Draco sourly gave Scorpius permission for James to visit the manor anytime during the day. Since James passed his Apparating test with ease, that summer, for almost every day, he'd volunteer at the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes for a few hours, and then he'd spend the rest with Scorpius at the Malfoy Manor or even at his own place at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. Wherever he went, he either flooed or Apparated. Most of the time was spent at Malfoy Manor, simply because James felt like the two had more privacy there than at his own house which had become like the King's Cross, people always coming and going. And privacy is a moment he cherished for all the loving he gave Scorpius and received as well.

When he entered his seventh year, he faced it with a mixture of dread, excitement, and dismay. Dread at the fact it was his last year at Hogwarts, excitement that he would finally blow the joint by next June, and dismay at all the work he had to do for the NEWTs. But Scorpius was there for him. Even though Scorpius' main job for the following seven months (starting in December) was to be James' personal "punching bag," Scorpius stood by, letting James rant out in frustration about the bloody sadistic tendencies of the people who made these sodding tests too difficult! James was thankful that Scorpius was there to lend a hand, and wanted to pay him back in gratitude and in love in every possible way he could think of.

But he was also pressed with another problem hanging over his head, and that was the question of their relationship next year when he wouldn't attend Hogwarts anymore. James did not want to be separated from Scorpius, but he couldn't stay at Hogwarts, at least not unless he became a teacher's assistant, but that was not what he wanted to do. This led him to think about other solutions and other options. Somehow, despite all the chaos happening around him with the NEWTs, he always thought about what he could do in the back of his mind.

And now that the fantastically, irritating, never-ending hell of doom had ended, James finally had an idea, and now he wanted to ask Scorpius if he'd be willing to go along with the new proposition in James' overworked mind.

* * *

"James? James, get away from la-la-land." James startles at Scorpius' voice and at the touch on his upper arm. He shakes himself awake from reverie and looks down to see his lover's slightly worried and amused look. "Should I be worried that the NEWTs did some permanent damage to your limited number of brain cells?"

"Limited? Why, my dear, Mr. Malfoy. If anything, those exams gave me a million more in my head, making me smarter than those Einstein and Mozart guys!"

"Well you were staring off into nothing for the last few minutes. Had me worried there for a bit, you know."

Feeling panicky, thinking that Scorpius will only scoff at his offer, James decides to just blurt the whole thing out in one long, convoluted sentence. "I was just thinking, actually I've been thinking that I want to take over the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes branch in Hogsmeade, the one where Uncle George bought from some guy named Zonko, but anyway, my uncle said I could, and if I do that, then I could live up above the shop, basically making it like my own flat, and you could visit anytime during your last year at Hogwarts, and when you are finished with Hogwarts, you're more than welcome to move in with me, so how does that all sound!?" Someone in James' family must've been a marathoner in the past or something because he has no clue how he has managed to say all that in _one single breath_.

James watches Scorpius sit up slowly, seeing a mixture of emotions going through Scorpius' hazel eyes, and soon he can see calm and peace in them. "James, I think your idea's good. I'm glad you decided to choose to go after your dream job. You will be perfect for it."

James waits while Scorpius pauses. He feels Scorpius' hands embracing and intertwining his, and James relaxes just a notch. "And as for me visiting, that sounds brilliant, really. Now you can pay me back by letting me use you as a 'punching bag' when I go through my NEWTs. And well, about the moving in part?" By then, Scorpius' tone and eyes have become a bit sombre.

"Let's cross that hurdle when we get there. I just do not want to make any promises that we may not be able to keep." James swallows hard and thinks about Scorpius' reasoning, and he decides that his lover is right. Why rush things through when they will have time to cross it later on?

"You're right, Scorpius. You're right." James, feeling overwhelmed with his love for Scorpius, leans in and kisses him gently for a long time, slowly nibbling the lower lips, wanting to make them look swollen and bruised, mostly to let the others know that this young man -- _his_ Scorpius -- is his and only his.

James feels quite disappointed, though, when Scorpius gently pushes him forward and says, "Stop." But what Scorpius says next, brings enthusiasm back into him. "I, I already planned a special dinner for you to celebrate you finishing up your NEWTs, James. Can we go get ready for it now?"

Smiling widely like an idiot, James nods. "Let's go. After being celibate for the last two weeks, I have to say, I will be expecting some _nice_ events." James stands up and pulls Scorpius up by his side, ignoring Scorpius' snort and mumbling about how it has only been three days and that sometimes Potters over exaggerate everything!

"Scorpius? Shut up." To end the jab on a lighter note, James pulls Scorpius against his chest and kisses him again. Unlike the earlier kiss, this is long, deep, and hard with a hint to foreshadow all the passion he wants to emit and share with Scorpius. And Scorpius, eagerly kisses back, almost forgetting to take him to that dinner he has promised. Luckily, the chef happens to be very understanding, so everything turns out well when they arrive there an hour later than the reservation date, and the excitement for that night hasn't ended at all. Instead, it only marks as the beginning of everything.

Words: 3763

Completed August 3, 2007


End file.
